Germany
East Germany East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic or GDR was a state within the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War period. From 1949 to 1990, it administered the region of Germany which was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of the Second World War. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR. The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. The East was often described as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949. Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. The GDR established the Ministry for State Security, which aided the Soviet Army in suppressing uprisings in 1953. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party though other parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation, the National Front of Democratic Germany. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned. Prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through an unregulated market. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the USSR, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc. Nonetheless it did not match the economic growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were young well-educated people, it further weakened the state economically. The government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to emigrate were killed by border guards or mines. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the emergence of a government committed to liberalization. The following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990. West Germany West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on the 3rd of October 1990. This period is also referred to as the Bonn Republic by academic historians. During this period NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border. After 1961, West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states, became known simply as "Germany". The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990. The city of Bonn was its capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union. The parts of this zone lying east of the occupied side of Berlin were in fact annexed by the Soviet Union and communist Poland; the remaining central part around Berlin became the communist German Democratic Republic. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to join the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. In addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial 11th state. While legally not part of the Federal Republic of Germany, as Berlin was under the control of the Allied Control Council, West Berlin aligned itself politically with West Germany and was directly or indirectly represented in its federal institutions. Map Here is a map concerning the different divisions of the West and East German control zones. (The only zone controlled by the Eastern bloc is the Soviet area.)